Her eyes were closed and her mouth slightly parted, waiting.
Reason fled with another slip of his control, leaving only the hunger that pushed him into dangerous waters. Releasing her wrist, he pulled her to him. He touched skin, lots of soft skin exposed by the backless gown.
He kissed her, savoring the taste he craved more than his next breath.
She clutched his damp hair and hugged him closer. Her lips burned against his with fierce determination, urging him to take as much as he wanted. More.
Nothing should taste this sweet. He devoured her mouth, tangling her tongue with his.
Hair finer than spun silk brushed over his hands, reminding him of times past. Her on top. A curtain of lava-red hair cascading over his chest and shoulders.
He held her with one arm, lifting a hand to cup her breast and brush a finger across her nipple. She gasped hard and tensed.
His conscience warned he had to stop now or go for broke.
Grabbing Kizira's upper arms gently, Quinn pushed her away. "You should go."
Her eyes blinked with confusion. "You want me to go? Why? Because you don't trust yourself around me?"
"I accept your apology. You should go before we do something else you'd regret."
"I would not regret making love with you, Quinn."
"We're on opposite sides of a dangerous conflict. We can't do this."
"Yes, we can. Don't waste our time. I might get called back to TAmr Medb at any moment and I don't know when I can slip away again. If you accept my apology, then accept me."
He had a duty to the Beladors, but he saw no honor in stealing from Kizira's mind when he had no idea what Flaevynn might do to Kizira if she found out how he'd gained the information. "I am a danger to you."
"Because you want to search my mind for information?"
Dear goddess, she knew. What had he done to give himself away?
"Stop beating yourself mentally," she told him in a calm voice that showed no hint of worry, or anger. "I came here knowing you probably hated me for what I did, but I could not live with the guilt and hoped you'd allow me to explain. I didn't expect you to just welcome me back in. I knew you'd need a reason to allow me to come into your room again and assumed it would be to gain information on the Medb."
"You expected me to take advantage of you." He shouldn't take offense since he had baited her into his suite for an ulterior purpose, but that didn't wipe away the film of shame sliding across his senses.
"No." She shook her head. "You are the most honorable man I know, which is why you're trying to push me away. You can't go through with what you want to do, but I deserve to have my mind breached after what I did to you."
He frowned, trying to follow her. "What are you saying, Kizira?"
"That I will make you this agreement. If you can withdraw the information you need, I won't hold it against you, but I don't think you can pull anything from my mind because of the way Flaevynn compels me."
"You would allow me to enter your mind?" he asked with no small dose of disbelief.
"No, I'm not able to open my mind to you voluntarily. What I'm saying is that I will not feel betrayed if you can figure your way past my shields."
"Don't doubt that I can gain access now that you and I have a connection."
"I have a healthy respect for the strength of your mind, Quinn, but you underestimate the power of Flaevynn's compulsion that forces me to protect my thoughts. As long as I'm cognizant of everything around me, I won't drop my shields. And even if you could bring yourself to harm me--which you can't--the compulsion would force me to stop you before you rendered me unconscious."
"What about Flaevynn? She'll wonder how I got my intel."
"If you and I are both successful, that won't matter."
"I don't understand."
She sighed. "As I said, I can't share anything voluntarily, so you'll just have to trust me that I know what I'm doing."
"It's not a matter of trust so much as fear over what she'd do to you."
"I will be fine. Do you really think you can bypass my shields?"
He nodded. "Assuming I'm the kind of bastard who would use you, there is a way to push you to lose all conscious thought so I could enter your mind." He'd have to take her to the knife's edge of orgasm and hold her there while he dove past her defenses.
She tilted her head and gazed off while she considered his words. When her eyes lifted to his again, her lips curved in a knowing smile. "Ah ... I hadn't considered that. I'm not sure what would happen, but finding out could be enjoyable as long as you eventually finish what you start."
This wasn't how he'd imagined their meeting going. Not for her to offer him access to what she knew of the Medb operation.
A jolt of suspicion woke the tactical side of his mind and saddened him, but he had to ask, "Why would you do this, Kizira?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up when she said, "I did not choose to be a Medb. I have no choice in my life beyond executing Flaevynn's orders and to be used as a tool for our coven, but I will not let her destroy you ... or what we've shared."
He forced his hands to stay at his sides. If he started touching her again, he'd never stop. "But you are a Medb and I'm a Belador. Any help you offer me will be used against the Medb to its fullest extent. What then?"
"I do not make this offer lightly, but if you trust me at all, then believe that I am working toward the day when the Medb and the Beladors can live in peace. I want us to be together, to end this insanity between your tribe and my coven, but I can't do it alone. I need your help. With everything in motion at this point, I can't promise that we won't meet on a battlefield or that I won't be compelled to do something that will make you hate me, but I don't want to do it and I don't want to be your enemy."
She put her face against his chest, hugging him hard. "Search for what you want, but don't deny me this one stolen moment of pleasure when I have so few in my world."
He raised his hand and held it in the air, his body and mind arguing over sending her away or pulling her to him. In the end, he lowered his fingers to brush along the length of her hair. "I can't use you that way, Phoedra." Divine one.
He felt her heartbeat quicken against his skin at the Russian endearment.
She whispered, "I haven't heard that since our time in Chechnya. What I wouldn't give to go back there and live forever." She pushed away from him, her eyes pleading. "This may be the only chance you'll have at getting past the compulsion obstacles in my mind. It won't be easy, but I grant you my permission to do with all of me as you please. No, I beg you to do this and help us both."
Reaching out, she grasped the edge of the towel and tugged it loose. She ran her fingers over his abdomen, then lower, stroking.
He sucked in a sharp breath and caught her wrist, facing a decision that could change the course of his and Kizira's lives.
The future of the Medb and the Beladors might rest upon his next action.
Her lips moved with one silent word. Please.
May the gods forgive him. He lifted her into his arms and headed for the midnight-dark bedroom. Lowering her gently to the bed, he sat next to her and leaned over her body to drink in every inch. His heart thundered in his chest. Depending on what he learned, this might be the last time they had alone.
He ran his hand over her face. "You are even more beautiful than you were the first time I met you. I have never met another I wanted as I want you."
Tiny lights sparkled and flickered around her in a soft starburst of glittering light. He eased the sheer material off of her shoulders, baring skin that had been moon-kissed.
Her sigh came out soft as an angel's music.
"My lovely Phoedra," he murmured.
"Me ... or my body?" She sounded small and insecure, so unlike the fierce priestess she'd always been.
He knew what she asked.
Anyone else saw only a Medb witch.
He saw the woman inside. "I see you, Kizira."
>
That must have been enough for her. The muscles in her neck and shoulders relaxed. She sat up and kissed him, her mouth raiding his lips.
His hand shook when he reached for her gown. One tug and the diaphanous material fell away, turning into tinkling sparkles of color that drifted apart.
How long had he wanted to see this body again, to hold her in his arms? He suffered equal parts of longing for the woman who gave life to his heart and guilt due to wanting his enemy.
But this beautiful creature had never been his enemy.
She lifted her fingers to his face. "I am yours. I have always been yours."
Quinn lowered his head, kissing her full mouth, taking all that she would give him. He grazed a finger over one of her breasts.
She shivered, warning, "You best be ready to break through my shields, Quinn, and prepared for anything you find. I need you to help me."
Was she only saying these things to make breaching her mental shields easier on him ... or to trick him? He'd know as soon as he entered her mind.
Quinn kissed her other breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth.
She whimpered.
Sparkling bolts of light shot through the air.
When he moved his hand down her abdomen and lower, she lifted into his touch. His fingers knew this woman, remembered teasing her into a sexual fever long ago. He reveled in her response, holding her at bay every time she danced closer to climax.
When she bowed off the bed, he removed his hand and mouth, watching as she trembled, waiting for him.
This time he returned with vicious precision and drove her hard to the edge of release.
It took all the discipline he possessed to ignore his need to have her and instead delve into her mind.
His fingers held her body prisoner as he fought his way past mental barriers that would protect a king's treasures.
Sweat poured down his face. He was struggling to hold her at the pinnacle and focus on searching when his body screamed to join with hers.
She'd warned him about her shields.
Both of them had thought that would be his only obstacle.
By the gods, Quinn hadn't considered that he could observe Kizira's response from inside her mind. That alone almost sidetracked him with her inching closer to release.
Her emotions lay open to him, and no man who cared for a woman could ignore seeing his woman when she climaxed.
She cried out, pleading with him.
That was the moment her shields weakened.
Prepared for anything, he forced himself to drive deep into her mind just as his fingers pushed her over the cliff and she came apart in his hands.
TWENTY-THREE
No woman was worth this much aggravation.
Storm circled the living room of the house he'd rented in Midtown, just on the outer edge of downtown Atlanta. A quiet place for eleven o'clock at night. He liked this older neighborhood and had considered staying, but not anymore.
If he did, someone would die.
But he couldn't leave until he found that damn Ashaninka witch doctor.
To find out anything new, he had to speak with Kai. But to speak to her, Storm had to calm down enough to cross from one world to another.
And that wasn't going to happen unless he could close his eyes without seeing Evalle kissing the guy who had already tried to kill her once. Had she forgotten that Isak Nyght had taken a shot at her the night Sen teleported her to the Tribunal meeting?
Evidently so.
Evalle also overlooked Tristan's betrayal and his constantly letting her down at the worst times. So why am I surprised she has no qualms about kissing someone who tried to shoot her?
Storm scrubbed a hand over his face, shoving his mind away from everything that antagonized his jaguar. His skin felt too tight already without riling the animal. As a Skinwalker, the full moon didn't force him to shift.
The control was his ... mostly.
But one woman kept him on tenterhooks so much that his jaguar stayed on the edge of wanting to break out.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, he stared at one of the fat, white candles sitting along his mantel and focused his mind. Battles were won through control.
He could win the one raging inside him.
When he felt ready to try again, he stepped over to the Navajo-design rugs in front of his hearth and sat down with his legs crossed. This time when he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he pushed his mind past the current world to the meadow in another dimension where he'd find his guardian spirit.
Seconds ticked past while his breathing slowed to almost nonexistent.
Once he was in the deep trance, Storm said, "I humbly request the presence of Kai."
"I am here, Storm," a pleasant female voice called to him.
No longer bound to earth, he opened his eyes to the peaceful setting of green-leafed trees surrounding her quiet meadow.
She smiled as she sat down across from Storm. "How does your healing progress?"
"I'll be fine." Physically.
"What troubles you?"
A woman. Not just any woman, but a raven-haired, motorcycle-riding hellion who had been turning him inside out since he met her. But he hadn't asked to meet with Kai to discuss Evalle. "I have had no more dreams of the witch doctor whose name we will not speak. I fear she will arrive unannounced and catch me unprepared, and thus put others at risk."
"You will know when she is near, but in my heart I feel you will not find happiness once you face her."
"I will if I make her return my father's soul, and mine."
"What if you cannot regain what you have lost?"
Never get his soul back? "I won't entertain that possibility." He couldn't consider failure when his father had no one else but Storm to save him.
"If you do not kill her, she will take that which you most desire."
"She already has."
"That was then. This is now."
He'd heard this warning before, back when Kai had told him the witch doctor hunted Evalle, which paralleled his visions. Irritation over Isak Nyght would not interfere with his commitment to Evalle's safety. "I won't allow the witch doctor to harm Evalle, but to protect her I need to know where I can find the witch doctor or ... when she'll find me."
Kai sighed deeply, her hands folded in her lap. "You risk much for this Evalle."
"Maybe so, but it's mine to risk," he said in a polite voice, since he couldn't fault Kai for pointing out that he might not be thinking clearly when it came to Evalle.
"Evalle has angered you."
Anger didn't come close to what he'd been feeling for the past hour. "Why would you say that?"
"Your aura was calm and happy during past visits when you mentioned Evalle, but it is now in chaos."
An accurate description of his insides at the moment. Chaotic and acidic. "That's a normal state around Evalle."
Kai smiled, eyes shining with the humor of an indulgent aunt. "Perhaps this is good for you."
"You think her driving me crazy is good?" he asked, forgetting to keep his tone even and undemanding.
"Yes." Kai smiled again, eyes light with humor. "She is the reason you fought to stay alive. She causes your aura to brighten even as she creates chaos. You have been consumed too long with finding the witch doctor and saving your father. You have had no thought for your own happiness."
She had a point.
He'd been pretty grim before he met Evalle. After only one day teamed up with her, Storm had decided he liked the prickly woman. She might know how to kill demons and stomp the butts of most men, human or otherwise, but she had an untamed innocence when it came to anything sexual.
Watching her open up to his slow advances had given him back something he'd lost--the ability to care about another person in the world of the living.
Kai watched him with eyes that saw more than he cared to share sometimes. "Or do you find the Adrianna who cared for you more interesting?"
"No." He ans
wered too quickly before realizing his guardian teased him. He could rarely dodge Kai when it came to revealing the truth. "I admit that Evalle does make me happy, but not right this minute."
"How has she offended you?"
She kissed another man. When he said that in his head, it didn't sound as bad as what he'd watched. Especially since he had no claim on Evalle and might have to leave if the witch doctor slipped through his fingers. That didn't stop him from wanting to rip off Isak's head for touching Evalle. "The issue with Evalle is something I can handle. I'm more concerned over finding the witch doctor and need your help to do that."
Kai nodded, then shut her eyes and lifted her hands, pressing her palms together in front of her chest. She whispered a soft chant for several minutes, then became silent, swaying slightly left, then right, until she lowered her hands. When her normally soft brown eyes opened, they were milky orbs. He always found it odd to hear the shallow voice of an old woman coming from Kai's young form.
"The witch doctor's energy circles closer to you each day. She will find the one she seeks before the next new moon. Beware of her words, for you will lose if they entangle you."
Storm tamped down his impatience in spite of his pulse's thrumming at the hope of nearing the end of his search. The witch doctor would be here by the new moon at the end of this month.
But did that mean she'd find him first? Or Evalle? He asked, "Is there any chance she'll be here sooner?"
Kai weaved back and forth, her smooth forehead tensing, then relaxing. "Not before sunrise three days from now."
Good. That would give him time to work off the frustration tightening his insides before he spoke to Evalle again, without worrying about the witch doctor getting to her first. In his present state of mind, he might say something to Evalle he'd later regret.
Right now he wanted Kai to explain about her warning to beware of the witch doctor's words that could entangle him.
Kai's eyes cleared. She stared through him as if watching something else and warned, "You must return to your world. Someone approaches."
"Wait." Something pulled Storm backward as Kai faded along with the meadow. He closed his eyes, trying to catch up to the swift change in his body.
The sound of knocking on his front door shook him from his groggy state.
He cupped his head and pushed to his feet, trying to get fully back in his body. He opened the door.
Evalle stood before him, rigid as a general, but Storm always picked up on her emotions, with his empathic ability quicker than any other person he'd ever been around.
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